Field of the Disclosure
The technology of the disclosure relates to fiber optic housings for supporting fiber optic equipment, including but not limited to fiber optic equipment that provides interconnect and/or cross-connect capabilities between optical components and opto-electrical components using fiber optic cables, and more particularly to apparatuses and related components for attaching fiber optic housings to an equipment rack such that the fiber optic housings may be easily and quickly removed from the equipment rack.
Technical Background
Benefits of optical fiber include extremely wide bandwidth and low noise operation. Because of these advantages, optical fiber is increasingly being used for a variety of applications, including but not limited to broadband voice, video, and data transmission. Fiber optic networks employing optical fiber are being developed and used to deliver voice, video, and data transmissions to subscribers over both private and public networks. These fiber optic networks often include separated connection points linking optical fibers to provide a contiguous fiber optic link from one connection point to another connection point. In this regard, fiber optic equipment is located in data distribution centers or central offices to support interconnections.
The fiber optic equipment is customized based on the application need. The fiber optic equipment is typically included in housings designed to support the fiber optic equipment, which are mounted in equipment racks to optimize use of space. One example of such fiber optic equipment is a fiber optic module/cassette. A fiber optic module/cassette is designed to provide cable-to-cable fiber optic connections and manage the polarity of fiber optic cable connections. A fiber optic module or cassette is mounted to a chassis or housing that is specifically designed to support fiber optic modules and cassettes. Another example of such fiber optic equipment is a fiber optic panel (also referred to as a “patch panel”). A fiber optic panel is designed to provide connection or termination points for optical fiber. A fiber optic panel typically includes fiber optic adapters that are configured to receive fiber optic connectors connected to the optical fiber to be connected or terminated. A fiber optic panel is typically mounted to a chassis or housing that is specifically designed to support fiber optic panels.
At various times, it may be necessary or desirable to access fiber optic equipment supported by a fiber optic housing, such as to add or remove fiber optic equipment and/or connect or disconnect optical fibers to and/or from the fiber optic equipment in the fiber optic housing. Thus, it would be desirable to be able to quickly and easily remove a fiber optic housing mounted in an equipment rack.